1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to water filtration, and more particularly, to an improved, portable water filtration bottle.
2. Description of Related Art
Water filtering means are widely known and used in numerous applications. It is important when comparing different kinds of filtration processes, and different kinds of products, that an understanding of the abilities and inabilities of each is obtained. The source of the water and particular "product need" are necessary to make sure that the correct filtration products are used in order to solve specific problems and to reduce specific contaminants and/or pollutants. With so many varying water problems and available filtration products throughout the world, an analysis or test of specific needs should be made before making a decision on what filtration product or products should be used to provide safe drinking water.
There are four (4) major types of water pollution, namely:
1) INORGANICS
Aesthetic--Taste, odor and clarity; PA1 Wet Chemistry--Chlorine, turbidity and total suspended solids; PA1 Heavy Metals--Aluminum, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, etc. PA1 Industrial--VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS (VOC), PA1 Trihalomethanes (THM), etc.; PA1 Agriculture--Organochlorine pesticides, PCB's, EBCP, and EDB. PA1 Radon 222. PA1 Coliform, Fecal Coliform, R. Terrigene, Cryptosporidium, Giardia L.
2) ORGANICS
3) RADIOLOGICAL CHEMICALS
4) MICROBIOLOGY
Each filtration and/or purification process and/or product has different abilities and inabilities of removing the contaminants mentioned above. These include: 1) Sediment filtration, which is primarily used to remove silt, sand and suspended items. Sediment filters come in many sizes, such as 20 micron, to remove particles that are 20 microns in size or larger. 2) Granulated activated carbon filtration (GAC), which are very effective at removing some chlorine, chloroform, trihalomethane, VOC, pesticides, herbicides and other organic chemicals. This type of filter is responsible for improving clarity, taste and odor, and the characteristics of the quality or type of GAC--dwell time, volume and flow rate have to be considered to create the best results for absorption of pollutants in water. The present invention uses a filter having Powder Activated Coconut Carbon (PAC), which is considered to be the very highest quality and smallest of the carbon medias. 3) Ultrafiltration, which is the design of very fine filters or ultrafiltration filters created for use in removing the contaminants listed above. These filters have the ability to remove pathogens that are larger than the pore size of the fine filter. Giardia, Cryptosporidium and other micro-organisms measuring 2-10 microns in size. Such filter assemblies are set forth in pending application Ser. No. 08/813,268, filed Dec. 23, 1996 for a PORTABLE FILTRATION SYSTEM AND METHOD, naming the same inventors as the current application. The disclosure of this application is incorporated herein, in its entirely, by this reference thereto. These known filters can remove up to 99.9% of the pollutants. Although such known water filter assemblies solve the above-mentioned filter needs, it has been found that the handling of the caps of such filters, when removing or replacing them on a bottle can contaminate the filter. Thus, there still exists the need in the art for an easy-to-use, substantially low-cost filter held in a flexible bottle that is not contaminated by handling, and efficiently filters and purifies water.
The combination filter and squeeze bottle of the present invention provides a product that has similar capabilities to known filter bottles to improve filtration and purification for more of the total pollution, by providing a water filter purification system, using media that is smaller than 5 micron in pore size, sealed in the interior of a bottle. The present invention has been specifically designed to be effective in all of the pollution areas identified above, namely, INORGANICS, ORGANICS, RADIOLOGICAL CHEMICALS AND MICROBIOLOGY. Available testing data shows the improved abilities of the present invention to remove high percentages of all of these contaminants or pollutants, without becoming contaminated by handling, which might occur with known systems.
Basically, the filter bottle combination of the present invention is permanently mounted and sealed in the top of a flexible, portable bottle. The flexible bottle includes an opening in the bottom of the bottle through which water may be added. A sealing cap is used to close the bottom opening. The filter assembly permanently secured in the bottle includes a PAC filter impregnated with sorbent media and a check valve assembly with a further filter mounted therein. When the cap closure at the bottom of the bottle is removed from the flexible bottle, the flexible bottle is filled with questionable water and the bottom cap replaced and tightened to seal the bottle. A nozzle outlet or valve is provided at a tip portion at the top of the bottle, after the sealed filter element. This valve may then be pulled upwardly or turned to open, and the flexible bottle squeezed to force water through the filter element, permanently sealed in the top of the bottle, whereby clean, filtered water will exit through the open nozzle or valve. The nozzle outlet or valve is then closed to seal the unit after use.